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beer 
Audio Help [beer] Pronunciation Key
Audio Help [beer] Pronunciation Key –noun
| 1. | an alcoholic beverage made by brewing and fermentation from cereals, usually malted barley, and flavored with hops and the like for a slightly bitter taste. |
| 2. | any of various beverages, whether alcoholic or not, made from roots, molasses or sugar, yeast, etc.: root beer; ginger beer. |
| 3. | an individual serving of beer; a glass, can, or bottle of beer: We'll have three beers. |
[Origin: bef. 1000; ME bere, OE béor; c. OS, OHG bior, MLG, MD bér, D, G Bier (ON bjōrr, prob. < OE); of disputed and ambiguous orig.]
] | Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
Beer
To learn more about Beer visit Britannica.com
| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
| beer
Audio Help (bîr) Pronunciation Key
n.
[Middle English ber, from Old English bēor, from West Germanic, probably from Latin bibere, to drink; see pō(i)- in Indo-European roots.] |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
beer
O.E. beor of much-disputed and ambiguous origin, but prob. a 6c. W.Ger. monastic borrowing of V.L. biber "a drink, beverage" (from L. infinitive bibere "to drink;" see imbibe). Another suggestion is that it comes from P.Gmc. *beuwoz-, from *beuwo- "barley." The native Gmc. word for the beverage was cognate with ale (q.v.). Small beer was originally "weak beer," used figuratively of small things.
"Beer was a common drink among most of the European peoples, as well as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, but was known to the Greeks and Romans only as an exotic product." [Buck]Gk. brytos, used in reference to Thracian or Phrygian brews, was related to O.E. breowan "brew;" L. zythum is from Gk. zythos, first used of Egyptian beer and treated as an Egyptian word but perhaps truly Gk. and related to zyme "leaven." Sp. cerveza is from L. cervesia, perhaps related to L. cremor "thick broth." O.C.S. pivo, source of the general Slavic word for "beer," is originally "a drink" (cf. O.C.S. piti "drink").
| Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper |
| beer | |
noun | |
| a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
beer [biə] noun
a type of alcoholic drink made from malted barley flavoured with hops
See also: small beer
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| Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd. |
Beer
Beer\, n. [OE. beor, ber, AS. be['o]r; akin to Fries. biar, Icel. bj?rr, OHG. bior, D. & G. bier, and possibly E. brew. [root]93, See Brew.]1. A fermented liquor made from any malted grain, but commonly from barley malt, with hops or some other substance to impart a bitter flavor. Note: Beer has different names, as small beer, ale, porter, brown stout, lager beer, according to its strength, or other qualities. See Ale. 2. A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc. Small beer, weak beer; (fig.) insignificant matters. "To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." --Shak.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
BEER
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